


threads

by hongmunmu



Category: Dragon Age II
Genre: Fenders, M/M, emetophobia warning jic, im a Shit Pit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-30
Updated: 2015-09-30
Packaged: 2018-04-24 05:08:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4906678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hongmunmu/pseuds/hongmunmu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tiny one shot, a night in Anders's clinic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	threads

Anders awoke to the sound of a terrified cry. 

  
**Someone in the clinic.**  
_I know, Justice._

 _  
_ Anders stood from his cot and walked to light a candle, blearily rubbing at the heavy bags under his eyes. Sleep didn't come for him so easily these days regardless, he mused as he shuffled into the clinic.

It was easy enough to tell the source of the disturbance; Fenris’ markings were glowing, lighting up the dark room. He quickly paced over to the cot and knelt down; Fenris was seemingly in a tumultuous state of sleep, shaking - Anders quickly noticed tears leaking out the corners of his eyes. 

“Hey,” he murmured, as reached to shake the elf’s shoulder. “Hey, Fenris. Wake up.” 

The second he made physical contact Fenris let out a strangled yell; his markings pulsed threateningly.

 

 **He is a being of the Fade.**  
_No, Justice._

 

He was brought out of internal conversations back to the task at hand by a choked sound; he had already lifted Fenris up, tilting his head towards the floor before he realised the man was vomiting. “Fenris! Wake up,” he hissed, keeping the shuddering body upright. Thankfully the elf’s eyes cracked open as he coughed and spluttered; his hands gripped at the side of the cot. Eventually, the clots of bile he had been depositing in a pile on the floor thinned until he was retching dry coughs. As soon as Anders was certain Fenris was fully awake and supporting himself he quickly fetched some water from a basin (not that the water was by any means clean in this part of town, but Hawke had helped him install a filter in the pump which kept most of the filth away), and began to fill a pitcher.

Fenris meanwhile had seemed to regain his grip on consciousness, taking deep breaths as he kept his gaze fixed on the floor. Anders wordlessly handed him the drinking water before proceeding to relocate the bile from the clinic floor to the waste bucket in the corner, of which emptying could wait for now. Once he had returned to Fenris’ bedside he knelt down, pulling back the sparse blanket.

“Can I check your injuries?” he whispered. Fenris hesitantly nodded, avoiding the healer’s gaze. He wiped his mouth of excess water and bile quickly before lying back down, allowing Anders to check the gash on his stomach he had bandaged the day before.

“Oh, balls,” Anders muttered, more to himself than to Fenris. “The stitches broke.”

Fenris said nothing, as though waiting for a scolding. Anders sighed gently. 

“All right, you,” he said, straightening up and rolling up his sleeves. “Now as a healer, it’s my opinion that this will be considerably easier on both of us if I–”

“No magic,” Fenris began immediately, his voice hoarse and ragged. Anders exhaled as quietly as he could.

“Right,” Anders asserted, helping Fenris up into a sitting position. “That’s… what I thought. I’ll go make some tea.”

“Do not bother yourself-” Fenris began to protest, but the healer wasn’t in the mood. 

“In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve _already_ bothered myself. So if I’m going to take care of a patient I might as well commit.”

“It is not necessary,” Fenris remarked grudgingly.

“No? Because you just threw up in your sleep and broke your stitches. So you’ll drink that tea because this, despite what you’ve convinced yourself, is _absolutely_ a health concern to me. But suit yourself - what would _I_ know, I’m only a healer…”

Fenris had nothing to say to that, just discreetly rubbed away any lingering tears in an attempt to avoid eye contact, and thus the burning shame that came with his current situation. Fenris didn’t mind Anders’s outbursts, in truth, he thought. It was somehow an anger always laced with care. The embarrassment of what he had done was a much worse punishment.

Anders’s expression softened.

“Look,” he said, voice less of a hiss and more a whisper now, “I don’t blame you. But as little interest as I have in invading your privacy, this is genuinely a health concern. And seeing as I’m already awake now, I might as well do something about it. Alright?”

Fenris paused before nodding slightly. Anders smiled, though it was barely visible in the slowly dimming light, and retreated to his room at the back of the clinic to heat some water. 

He returned with two mugs of tea, thread, a needle, and disinfectant. 

“Okay. Here you go.” 

Fenris finished his tea in silence and lay back on the cot while Anders started to clean the partially-healed wound.

“What was it about?” he asked, after a few moments passed in silence.

“What do you think?” 

Anders’s face fell as he pulled through the last stitch, earning an almost inaudible groan from Fenris.

“Fair enough.” 

Anders snipped the excess threat and quickly dabbed more disinfectant on the new stitches. 

“There. All done.” He reaffixed the cotton patch over the wound and sat back, waiting for Fenris’s verdict. “‘We doing good?” 

Fenris gave a curt nod. “It is fine.” 

Anders nodded and rose, blowing out the candle he had lit earlier, and as he turned there was a small noise from behind him; he paused, and Fenris’s brands flickered back into a blue light from where they were starting to dim. A certain word crossed Anders’s mind, but he couldn’t quite catch it in time to see what it was.

“I- thank you, Anders.”

Anders smiled at him in response.

“You’re welcome.”

 

 **Those lights will wake the other patients.**  

_They are dreadfully pretty, though._

 


End file.
